A writer must “know and have an ever-present consciousness that this world is a world of fools and rogues… tormented with envy, consumed with vanity; selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions… He should free himself of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, politics…” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). “The nobility of the writer's occupation lies in resisting oppression, thus in accepting isolation” —Albert Camus (1913-1960). “What are you gonna do” —Bertha Brown (1895-1987).

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Nothing has changed since the death of this college adjunct two years ago

“Margaret Mary Vojtko, an adjunct professor of French for
25 years, died underpaid and underappreciated at age 83.

“On Sept. 1, Margaret Mary Vojtko, an adjunct professor
who had taught French at Duquesne University for 25 years, passed away at the
age of 83. She died as the result of a massive heart attack she suffered two
weeks before. As it turned out, [Daniel Kovalik] may have been the last person she talked to.

“On Aug. 16, [Kovalik] received a call from a very upset Margaret
Mary. She told [Kovalik] that she was under an incredible amount of stress. She was
receiving radiation therapy for the cancer that had just returned to her, she
was living nearly homeless because she could not afford the upkeep on her home,
which was literally falling in on itself, and now, she explained, she had
received another indignity -- a letter from Adult Protective Services telling
her that someone had referred her case to them saying that she needed
assistance in taking care of herself. The letter said that if she did not meet
with the caseworker the following Monday, her case would be turned over to
Orphans' Court.

“For a proud professional like Margaret Mary, this was
the last straw; she was mortified. She begged [Kovalik] to call Adult Protective
Services and tell them to leave her alone, that she could take care of herself
and did not need their help. [Kovalik] agreed to. Sadly, a couple of hours later, she
was found on her front lawn, unconscious from a heart attack. She never
regained consciousness.

“Meanwhile, [Kovalik] called Adult Protective Services right
after talking to Margaret Mary, and [Kovalik] explained the situation. [Kovalik] said that she
had just been let go from her job as a professor at Duquesne, that she was
given no severance or retirement benefits, and that the reason she was having
trouble taking care of herself was because she was living in extreme poverty. The
caseworker paused and asked with incredulity, ‘She was a professor?’ [Kovalik] said
yes. The caseworker was shocked; this was not the usual type of person for whom
she was called in to help.

“Of course, what the caseworker didn't understand was
that Margaret Mary was an adjunct professor, meaning that, unlike a well-paid
tenured professor, Margaret Mary worked
on a contract basis from semester to semester, with no job security, no
benefits and with a salary of between $3,000 and just over $3,500 per
three-credit course. Adjuncts now make up over 50 percent of the faculty
at colleges and universities.

“While adjuncts at Duquesne overwhelmingly voted to join
the United Steelworkers union a year ago, Duquesne has fought unionization,
claiming that it should have a religious exemption. Duquesne has claimed that the unionization of adjuncts like Margaret
Mary would somehow interfere with its mission to inculcate Catholic values
among its students.

“This would be news to Georgetown University -- one of
only two Catholic universities to make U.S. News & World Report's list of
top 25 universities -- which just recognized its adjunct professors' union,
citing the Catholic Church's social justice teachings, which favor labor
unions.

“As amazing as it
sounds, Margaret Mary, a 25-year professor, was not making ends meet. Even
during the best of times, when she was teaching three classes a semester and
two during the summer, she was not even clearing $25,000 a year, and she
received absolutely no health care benefits. Compare this with the salary of
Duquesne's president, who makes more than $700,000 with full benefits.

“Meanwhile, in the past year, her teaching load had been
reduced by the university to one class a semester, which meant she was making
well below $10,000 a year. With huge out-of-pocket bills from UPMC Mercy for
her cancer treatment, Margaret Mary was left in abject penury. She could no
longer keep her electricity on in her home, which became uninhabitable during
the winter. She therefore took to working at an Eat'n Park at night and then
trying to catch some sleep during the day at her office at Duquesne. When this
was discovered by the university, the police were called in to eject her from
her office. Still, despite her cancer and her poverty, she never missed a day
of class.

“Finally, in the
spring, she was let go by the university, which told her she was no longer
effective as an instructor -- despite many glowing evaluations from students.
She came to [Kovalik] to seek legal help to try to save her job. She said that all she
wanted was money to pay her medical bills because Duquesne, which never paid
her much to begin with, gave her nothing on her way out the door.

“Duquesne knew all about Margaret Mary's plight, for [Kovalik]
apprised them of it in two letters. [Kovalik] never received a reply, and Margaret Mary
was forced to die saddened, penniless and on the verge of being turned over to
Orphan's Court.

“The funeral Mass for Margaret Mary, a devout Catholic,
was held at Epiphany Church, only a few blocks from Duquesne. The priest who
said Mass was from the University of Dayton, another Catholic university and my
alma mater. Margaret Mary was laid out in a simple, cardboard casket devoid of
any handles for pallbearers -- a sad sight, but an honest symbol of what she
had been reduced to by her ostensibly Catholic employer.

“Her nephew, who had contacted [Kovalik] about her passing,
implored [Kovalik] to make sure that she didn't die in vain. He said that while there
was nothing that could be done for Margaret Mary, we had to help the other
adjuncts at Duquesne and other universities who were being treated just as she
was, and who could end up just like she did. [Kovalik] believes that writing this story
is the first step in doing just that.”

“The wages paid for an adjunct position are exploitatively low. Each course should allow a person to have a living wage. The school makes so much money off of us, we only get a fraction of that.” In the survey, “62 percent of adjuncts say they make less than $20,000 a year from teaching… 81 percent make less than $30,000 a year.”

“...To Duquesne officials, Margaret Mary was ‘just an adjunct.’ But to adjuncts everywhere, she's become an emblem -- both of their plight and of their fight for labor rights.

“In a case of beautiful irony, one of their strongest campaigns is taking place at Duquesne. Adjuncts there have already voted to join the Steelworkers union, but the domineering masters of this Catholic school are resorting to devious, legalistic ploys to deny simple justice for their faculty. Bizarrely, they've even demanded a religious exemption from our labor laws, claiming that unionization would interfere with their teaching of Catholic values!

“USW's president, Leo Gerard, promptly filed an appeal to that claim. Not to the labor department or the courts, but to the Pope! And to make his case that Pope Francis should speak out on this issue of social justice, Gerard pointed to the recent lament by the Pontiff himself about today's ‘throwaway culture.’ Then he told Francis the story of Margaret Mary Vojtko...”

University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign: $2,625 - $8,400 per courseUniversity of Illinois at Chicago: $4,000 - $8,000 per courseUniversity of Illinois at Springfield: $5,500 per courseWaubonsee Community College: $1,875 - $2,100 per courseWheaton College: $2,775 - $3,700 per course

17th century political philosopher John Locke once stated: "People are slow to act. It takes not merely one or two but a long series of abuses to lead people to revolution." Most teachers I know are non-confrontational. It will take a very long time and more abuses before teachers unify and act.

"It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our [lives]... Not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory..." (Elie Wiesel).

Teacher/Poet/Musician

Copyrights & Fair Use: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of issues vital to a democracy. I believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law.

Persona

"I want everything to be explained to me or nothing. And reason is impotent when it hears this cry from the heart. The mind aroused by this insistence seeks and finds nothing but contradiction and nonsense" —Albert Camus (1913-1960).